


This Time Around

by Rovelae



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Amnesia, M/M, Pining, postgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25643962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rovelae/pseuds/Rovelae
Summary: “In an effort to minimize psychological trauma, it is Team Danganronpa’s policy to erase the memories of everyone who experiences death during their participation in their Killing School Semester. Essentially, their personalities will be re-downloaded into their bodies so that they can begin their new lives in as stress-free an environment as possible.“For your own sake as well as theirs, please do not expect to rekindle old friendships and/or relationships with deceased (and subsequently reset) participants. They do not remember you.”(***This is a PREVIEW of my contribution to the Kind Lie fanzine!***)
Relationships: Ouma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 120





	This Time Around

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this is a preview/teaser! I don't plan on updating it to include the ending, so order the Kind Lie zine if you wanna see :3 Details are in the end notes!

A mercy, they called it.

A hard reset. A second chance for the blackened and victims alike, erasing their memories and all the trauma attached.

To Shuichi, it was just Team Danganronpa’s way of taking even more from him.

Maybe that was a selfish way to think—after all, not a day went by that Shuichi didn’t wish he could forget everything he witnessed in the killing game, so, in a way, he envied those who had died in the simulation.

But still—when he’d walked into the common area and Kaito greeted him with a _Hi there! I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars!_ and Kaede had laughed and asked, _What’s your name?_ —None of his friends even recognizing his face, after everything they’d been through—

“It’s your _move,_ you know.”

Shuichi jumped and looked up to where Kokichi sat across the table from him, chin propped up in one hand, idly inspecting the fingernails of the other. “Ah… sorry,” he mumbled, looking down at the chessboard. Kokichi’s wall of pawns remained as unyielding as ever. He shifted a bishop toward the middle of the playing field.

Almost before his hand left the piece, Kokichi moved his knight. “Check.”

Shuichi winced. “I should have seen that coming.”

“No kidding,” Kokichi drawled, twirling Shuichi’s second rook in his fingers.

Shuichi moved his king behind a pawn and bit his lip. Meeting Kokichi again was the hardest part, because he’d expected resentment. He’d expected hurt, or anger, or the blank stare Kokichi always put between himself and someone he didn’t trust. Instead, he’d gotten… _this,_ this suspicion of a different flavor; Kokichi had at least thought of him as a potential ally the first time, but now, he saw Shuichi as just another Future Foundation member keeping him in the hospital against his will.

It didn’t help that the Foundation wasn’t letting Shuichi explain anything….

_“Check,”_ Kokichi said, as if he’d repeated it several times already. “Geez, you don’t have to keep playing if you hate it this much.”

“I don’t hate it, I just….” Shuichi sighed and moved his bishop back to take the brunt of Kokichi’s attack. “I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my mind.”

Kokichi hummed, tilting his head, and captured one of Shuichi’s pawns. “Thinking about me, Mr. Detective?” he said with a brilliant smile, and Shuichi choked on air.

“No! I mean—well, yes, but—but it’s not like—”

“So you never think about me?” Violet eyes filled with tears, and Kokichi faceplanted into his folded arms on the table, narrowly missing the game board. “Shuichi _hates me!”_ he wailed. “Shuichi wants me _dead!”_

Shuichi had seen this routine enough times not to be taken in by it, but the words still sent an unexpected pang through his chest. What if Kokichi had seriously thought that, back in the game?

What if, inside that machine—?

“Normally I get a better reaction than that,” Kokichi grumbled, all traces of tears vanishing the moment he lifted his head, “but you look like you’re about to tell me you hit my dog with a truck.”

“Sorry,” Shuichi said. He felt like he apologized a lot, these days. “I, um… was just thinking about the accident.”

“Ah, yes, the mysterious and not-at-all-vague _accident,”_ Kokichi mused, and Shuichi held back a grimace. The Foundation’s story was a shoddy coverup, yes, but really the best they could do. “Don’t tell me you’re pitying me for something I can’t even remember.”

“You wouldn’t appreciate pity,” Shuichi said quietly.

“Is it guilt, then? Are you responsible for what happened?”

“Not—no, I—”

“Do I have a reason to resent you?” Kokichi wore a disarming smile, but his eyes were sharp, calculating. “What was I to you, anyway? Huh, Shuichi?"

**Author's Note:**

> It's been such an honor working with so many talented artists and writers! The zine is absolutely worth it and you should absolutely check it out here! --> kindliezine.bigcartel.com  
> Also, if you order before midnight on 2 August, use the code FIRST to get 10% off! (Play it safe and order before 11:59pm on today the 1st)


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